Sparks
by morgang1994
Summary: It's the 100th Hunger Games, and Katniss and Peeta have one of two sets of twins eligible to go in the arena.
1. Chapter 1

I'm in the arena again. Off in the distance, three blood-red forms materialize. I know that the forms are Johanna Mason, with Beetee and Wiress. Beetee collapses, so I run to help Johanna get him back on his feet. When I'm halfway there, Johanna's body suddenly wavers, and she morphs into a wolf-like mutation. She has Glimmer's eyes. The mutt quickly kills Beetee and Wiress before turning to me. She pounces…

I wake up screaming. Peeta rolls over, wrapping me in his arms. Immediately, I feel better, his arms lending solidity to the world that seems to disappear at night.

"You want to talk about it?" he asks. He knows that it can help, but there's not much to say. "It's always worse when we have to worry about the Games, isn't it?"

The Hunger Games. The Capital's way of keeping us submissive. Twenty-six years ago, by trying to save both my life and Peeta's, I set off the spark that caused mass uprisings in more than half of the Districts. To bring us back under control, the Capital had to reduce the restrictions on all the Districts, rebuild the terrorized cities, and bring back District 13. The rebels imprisoned President Snow, so head of the rebellion and Head Gamemaker Plutarch Heavensbee took his place.

For some reason, the kept all the Games and their rules, which spark my recurring nightmares. This year is the 100th Hunger Games; they're reading the Quarter Quell card tonight. Rue and Cato just turned twelve, so, this year, they have to pay extra attention to the Games information.

Peeta interrupts my thoughts."We should get the kids up now. Their class is going to the coal mines today." We disentangle ourselves from our embrace and go down the hall. I stop in Rue's room. Even asleep, she reminds me of her namesake, who died in the arena, and Prim. All three have a birdlike grace. Prim and Peeta both have her same olive skin, blonde hair, and blue eyes. She looks so much more like Peeta that, if it wasn't for the Hunger Games making our relationship famous, people would think that Rue isn't my daughter.

Before I take a step, she stirs, looks at me, and grins.

Mornin', Mom!" She practically dances to her closet, gushing about clothes, the school field trip, and the card reading. I leave her to make breakfast for the family. Peeta is leaning over the counter, drawing something swirly. It takes me a few moments before I realize what it is: the flower the morphling drew on his cheek before she died. He's been trying to recreate it since Panem returned to peace. This is the best try yet, in my opinion.

Peeta looks up as I cook. He steals a bite of eggs, and a kiss. He seems unusually cheerful, considering the ominous newscast looming. Everyone does. Peeta joins in the cooking process, and starts to bake cinnamon rolls. The scent is heavenly.

Just before breakfast is ready, a small stampede comes down the stairs. Both Cato and Rue go straight for Peeta's cinnamon rolls.

I have to tell them, "Eat some real food first before you go for the sweets, and don't even try pulling the 'It's all real food' card on me. Eat your eggs and sausage first; eat the cinnamon rolls after." They secede with myriad complaints that quickly turn into compliments with the first bite of sausage.

By the time they finally finish eating, they're late. Peeta gives them their lunches and backpacks, and I rush them to school, in one of the District's few cars. They make it just in time. I drop off the car, and Peeta and I go walking.

"Where to?" he asks.

I have no real answer, so I answer, "Wherever". We wander, until we find ourselves at the Meadow, near the old fence. It hasn't been electrified in years, but nobody really enjoys being near the fence; it's fallen into disrepair. Perfect. We crawl under the fence where it's beginning to pull away from the ground. Peeta's only gone through a few times, but I still go through regularly. I've taught Rue, Cato, Madge, and her and Gale's daughter, Maysilee, how to hunt. All four can uses bows and knives with perfect accuracy, and Cato and Maysilee are perfectly suited to the woods.

Once we get into the forest, Peeta lets me lead. Even after 25 years, he still can't walk on uneven terrain with his artificial leg. We make slow, steady progress, trampling tree limbs, weeds, and residual snowdrifts. When we finally get to our destination, it's nearly noon. The lake, with the small, one-room building on the shore, is tranquil. We tramp to the building by the lake. Once we get in, I start building a fire, and Peeta unpacks our lunch. We cuddle up together, eating cheese buns, my favorite snack. When we finish eating, i give him a peck on the cheek.

"Thanks for lunch," I mutter into his ear. He takes me in his arms and starts kissing me. We're getting warm with our thick layers and the fire. I take off my coat, and he copies me; we never separate our lips. We start twisting our heads, trying to get closer. Our thin shirts are in the way. Peeta's arms slip under mine...

* * *

We get back to the Victor's Village at the same time as the twins. Cato seems unusually reserved; his silence is unnerving. When Peeta asks him what's wrong, he tells us that he saw Vick in the mines; he looked miserable.

"I don't want to have to work in the mines. Vick has two brothers with money, and he still looks half-starved! If I work that hard for so little, I don't see the point of working at all." Peeta and I have a tough time answering him. He's mentioned a topic that has bothered us for years. The fact that victors, people in the Capital, and District heads get all of the money has haunted us since we first went to the Capital for the 74th Hunger Games. All we can think of saying to him is that if he doesn't want to work in the mines, he can be a shopkeeper.

We immediately stop the conversation when we get to the living room. Rue turns on the television, and Cato helps Haymitch in the house. His mind and body have deteriorated rapidly in the last five years, since his only niece died in the arena. He was a mentor that year.

The anthem plays as we settle in. President Heavensbee tells the story of the origin of the Hunger Games, along with the more recent addition of the 75th Year Rebellion. He continues with the previous Quarter Quells. For the 25th Games, the tributes were elected. For the 50th, Haymitch's year, they doubled the number of tributes. The 75th year, the second year Peeta and I went into the arena, all the tributes were previous victors.

President Heavensbee pulls out this year's card. He reads, "On the one-hundredth anniversary, as a reminder that the rebels implicated their families, who were killed because of them, the tributes from each district must be twins." A small squeak escapes from my lips before I fully regain control of myself. There are only two eligible sets of fraternal twins in the district. One of the sets is sitting on the couch next to me.

* * *

**This is my first attempt at a fanfic. It may be terrible. I need a beta (I know that I can't catch everything). PM me if you're interested!**


	2. Chapter 2

Sorry, readers! I've had a hectic few months, with moving, a new school, and several wip's. I'll try to be much better about posting chapters.

* * *

Prim is in our living room faster than I previously thought possible, with Rory following closely behind. She starts speed talking immediately.

"Ohmigosh! What are you going to do if the twins are in the arena? Are you going to mentor them? Do you want someone else to mentor them? What are you going to do? What if they get killed!" Prim gets increasingly agitated, her voice rising in pitch and volume.

"Relax! Just…shut up, Prim! You're not helping anyone by freaking out like this." I force her on the couch, and Rory sits next to her.

He tells her," Katniss and Peeta helped me, a group of siblings, and an engaged couple all win. They know adverse situations, and they'll make it." His soft voice, in sharp contrast to Prim's and mine, calms us all.

Cato, in his soft, timid voice, asks, "What are we gonna do if we get picked in the reaping? I don't want to have to kill my own sister." A single tear slides down his dark cheek. When Prim and Rue see, they sandwich him in a hug. Rue is openly crying now.

She starts wailing. "I don't wanna die!"

"You're not going to die." Haymitch's rough, gravelly voice shocks us into silence. He repeats, "You're not going to die. You are the most well trained people not from a Career District; you're better trained than the Careers, too. Your young age can be an advantage. People will think you're weak. Remember Johanna Mason?" The twins nod. "Good. I'm heading home. Rory, Prim, you comin' with me?" They hop up, helping Haymitch stumble to his feet. He toddles out of the room. Prim and Rory follow him. I watch them help him home through the window. When Haymitch gets in his house, I turn around.

"What are we going to do?" Rue asks me.

"Starting tomorrow, we are going to train twice as hard, run twice as fast, lift twice the weight, eat twice the food. We will do whatever it takes to get us in shape for the Games." Cato seems almost excited now that the shock is gone. "Haymitch is right. We will win this thing, together!" He mutters something like, "Maysilee will be proud." He's had a crush on her for a couple years now. She may be older than him, but it's less of an age difference than between Gale and Madge.

"C'mon, bedtime." Peeta always antagonizes himself with them, but they love him anyways. Being a great baker has to help. After they go upstairs, Peeta sits next to me. He can tell that I'm still terrified of the idea of having the kids chosen in the Reaping. The odds are never in our favor, ever. I close my eyes, take a few deep breaths, and try to relax. I jump as I feel arms wrap around me, but relax again when I process the fact that the only other person in the room is Peeta, who would never, could never, hurt me. I curl into him the way I did after we won the Hunger Games the first time, during the three-hour recap of that first Games, and the interview afterward. I still feel remorse for costing Peeta his leg. He may walk steadily, but he'll never return to his former athleticism. I almost forget I'm lying against him until he wipes away the tears silently sliding down my cheeks.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't be doing this to you. I've done enough to hurt you already," I mumble into his shirt. I look up at him and see his eyes brimming with tears as well. We drag ourselves into bed, hoping for good dreams of a brighter future with our whole family intact. Of course, they don't come. I wake up screaming. Peeta walks in the bedroom door, paintbrush in hand. I wasn't the only one with a nightmare. As usual, he asks me about my dream. This time, I tell him.

"It wasn't really one dream; it was more of a string of dreams. All of them were you dying, or with someone else, or the kids dying, any way I could lose my family, mostly you. I nearly went mad when I thought you would die. My mom called me catatonic when you were captured by the Capital. Losing you is the scariest thing ever."

"Katniss, I'll never leave you willingly. I promise. Come on, back in be," he says, throwing his paintbrush onto the tile floor of the bathroom as he drags me into bed.


End file.
